As gas plants rise to power AI, renewable energy allies are fighting for
cleaner alternatives
[July 13, 2026] By
MARC LEVY
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — As the explosive energy demand of artificial
intelligence spurs a renaissance for fossil fuels, renewable energy
allies are trying to ensure that massive data centers will be powered by
climate-friendly sources, too.
Lawmakers in states with stronger climate policies don't want data
centers to hinder their goal of slashing planet-warming greenhouse gas
emissions.
In other states, environmental advocates and corporations with clean
energy goals are working regulatory levers to push monopoly utilities
that historically control the energy supply and grid access.
The problem clean energy proponents are confronting is that tech giants
are demanding power at such speed and scale — some data centers consume
more energy than a mid-size city — that the construction of wind and
solar simply can't keep up.
As a result, the AI boom has set in motion the biggest-ever construction
boom of natural gas-fired power plants, not to mention moves by
utilities, power plant owners and the federal government to keep aging
coal-fired power plants operating past their previously scheduled
retirement dates.
Legislation on the desk of New York Gov. Kathy Hochul would require data
centers over a certain size to meet renewable energy benchmarks starting
in 2030 and, by 2040, get at least 90% of their energy from renewable
energies. The bill's author, state Sen. Kristen Gonzalez, a Democrat,
said the targets are realistic.
“We are literally talking about the wealthiest companies in the world
that are looking to build in New York state, and if they have the
resources to put billions of dollars into data center development, then
they certainly should have the resources to build out renewable energy
sources to power them,” Gonzalez told The Associated Press.
Worries that AI's energy demands will scuttle climate goals
Michigan, Oregon and Minnesota led the way, enacting laws in the last 18
months designed to protect their pre-existing requirements that electric
utilities use only emissions-free energy sources by 2040.
“That’s a challenging thing to meet with the data centers,” said Bob
Jenks, executive director of the Oregon Citizens' Utility Board, a
nonprofit that advocates for lower utility bills and cleaner energy. “It
was a challenging thing to meet without the data centers.”
Minnesota and Oregon ordered regulators to ensure that the energy that
supplies data centers is in line with their emissions-reduction goals,
while Michigan required hyperscale data centers to meet a clean energy
requirement — 90% within six years — to access its lucrative sales tax
exemption.
Bills with similar provisions emerged in more than a half-dozen states,
including California, Illinois, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
“We just can’t do business as usual with a demand at this scale and
facilities of this scale because the impacts are massive,” California
state Sen. John Padilla, who sponsored a bill in his state, told the AP.
Pushing utilities to expand access to the power grid
Along with gas projects, tech giants like Google are investing billions
into their own zero-emissions projects like solar, wind, geothermal,
nuclear or battery storage.
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Tech giants often find themselves confronted with utilities that can't
promptly supply the kind of power they need. So they — along with
environmental groups, energy entrepreneurs and business associations —
are trying to persuade regulators to expand access to the grid,
including in states where legislators are averse to clean energy
mandates.
Greg Robinson, whose Raleigh, North Carolina-based firm Aston Power
helps procure power for data centers and other big energy users, likened
it to the growth of FedEx when the business world decided that the U.S.
Postal Service was too slow.
“Then business said, ‘Hey we’re doing more things now, the postal
service is not keeping up so maybe there’s an opportunity for a new
service,’” Robinson said.
Part of the exercise has been convincing utilities — which profit by
building power plants and transmission infrastructure — that this won't
threaten their bottom lines, clean energy advocates say.
For one, utilities will get to connect a power source that they don't
have to charge customers for, especially at a time when electricity
bills are rising quickly in many utility territories.
Utilities also get a large, long-term energy customer that pays them to
expand the grid, instead of watching big customers build standalone
power sources.
Regulators are greenlighting renewable energy projects
Last year, clean energy advocates persuaded Colorado regulators to order
the state's largest electric utility, Xcel Energy, to create a program
to let big power users build clean energy projects that can be connected
to the grid.
In an April regulatory filing, Xcel Energy said it agreed that a program
could benefit customers, and cited two Google projects — one in Nevada
to connect 115 megawatts of geothermal energy and another in Minnesota
to connect 1,900 megawatts of wind, solar and battery storage — that
were approved through similar programs.
Still, a fight over how Xcel Energy wants to design the program looms
with clean energy advocates in front of state regulators.
Google's agreement with NV Energy, Nevada's largest for-profit utility,
received approval from regulators last year and is widely viewed as the
first of its kind. Google says it now has similar concepts approved or
under consideration in eight other states, including Indiana, Kansas,
Missouri and South Carolina.
The Corporate Energy Buyers Association — whose members include tech
giants and large corporations — hammered out an agreement with Georgia
Power, approved by state regulators there earlier this year, to allow
their members to build clean energy sources and connect them to the
grid.
They are now seeking something similar in North Carolina.
“These innovations are actually some of the most incredible and
understated innovations we’re going to see in regulatory and energy
procurement,” Nidhi Thaker, CEBA's senior vice president of policy, told
the AP. “And I think the actions that are being taken right now are
actually going to set energy policy for the next two to three decades.”
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